Lord Tebbit is one of Britain's most outspoken conservative commentators and politicians. He was a senior cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government and is a former Chairman of the Conservative Party. He has also worked in journalism, publishing, advertising and was a pilot in the RAF and British Overseas Airways.

Sixty years in the public eye, and more loved and respected than ever

What a celebration! Sixty years in the public eye as our monarch and even more loved and respected now than back in February 1952 when, still mourning for her father, the young Elizabeth returned from Africa as Queen.

Of course like almost everybody I watched the Coronation ceremony in June 1953 on a scratchy, grainy little television screen, but what remains far more clearly than that is the memory of the Officers' Mess Coronation Ball at RAF North Weald, where I was a young pilot on 604 Squadron RAuxAF. That was not least because the Mess Committee had decided that in a great patriotic gesture the price of champagne should be reduced to ten shillings (50p) a bottle. Thus perhaps was that much-loved institution the "two for the price of one" offer first born.

The world has changed a great deal since then. Few of those who had survived two world wars in the service of King and Country are still here to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of that young Queen. In that sense at least we are a poorer country and we face challenges that they could not have envisaged 60 years ago.

During her reign the old British Empire has gone, but the Commonwealth of which she is Queen is now in many ways strengthening its ties of mutual interests. She has seen the Cold War teeter on the very edge of becoming a thermonuclear hot war, before the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the liberation of Central Europe. Now her Armed Forces are much diminished and struggling to contain the waves of terrorism which threaten the interests of the democratic world.

Here at home, all sorts of material wealth have become much more widely enjoyed and there has been enormous social change, even if not much greater contentment.

Throughout it all, and through some difficult times, the monarchy has resisted the surrounding clamour of change for the sake of change, but has in its own way made good use of new technologies, grown and matured. Amidst the dangers of a society far more riven by divisions than it was when she came to the throne, amongst all our institutions the monarchy stands as a unifying force, a national talisman to which all can, and by far the greatest majority do, give their loyalty.